Late July, downstream news update: Asia and the Middle East

Approximately a dozen villages in Dabwalitehsil of Sirsa district have threatened to launch a protest against the pollution caused by Guru Gobind Singh Refinery, which is located in the neighbouring Kanakwal village of Bathinda district, Punjab.

The oil refinery is run by HMEL, a joint venture of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited and Mittal Energy Investment Private Limited.

The villagers allege that air pollution caused by the refinery has caused significant detriment to their lives.

Tajikistan

President Emomali Rahmon has helped to launch a new oil refinery as his country continues to try to alleviate chronic energy shortages.

The new refinery was opened on 20th July, and has the capacity to process 100 000 tpy of oil. Russia will reportefly supply the crude oil for the refinery but there were no details on the amount of oil that Russia is contracted to deliver.

Middle East

Iran

Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) is to open two new petro refineries in Abadan and Tabriz for producing benzene and butylene. The projects are aimed at integrating Iran’s oil refineries and petrochemical complexes to enhance profitability and reduce costs.

Also in Iran, the government plans to construct a gas refinery in the Southern Persian Gulf Island of Qeshm. This refinery is to have a production capacity of 80 million ft3/d and will be built in the centre of the country’s energy zone, according to Heydar Yarveisi, Head of the Qeshm Operational Zone at the National Iranian Offshore Oil Company (NIOOC).

Qatar

Laffan Refinery Company’s (LRC) diesel hydrotreater project (DHT) has completed two million man hours without nay lost time injuries (LTI).

The DHT unit, designed to produce diesel with less than ten parts per million sulfur content with Euro 5 environmental specification, will be built and integrated into the existing Laffan Refinery by 2014.